WASHINGTON, DC – As reported in the Talking Points Memo, corporations and trade groups that released statements condemning the Jan. 6 attack donated more than $2.1 million in 2021 to members of Congress who voted to overturn the election, a group that’s been dubbed the ‘Sedition Caucus’.

Accountable.US recently released an analysis finding Fortune 500 companies and corporate trade associations donated over $800,000 in December 2021 alone to election objectors in the weeks leading up to the first anniversary of the deadly Capitol coup attempt. These contributions rounded out the biggest quarter since the insurrection and brought the 2021 total to over $9 million.

Corporations that couldn’t even go a year without compromising their own stated values on democracy clearly value having political influence over lawmakers even more — no matter what dangerous and undemocratic views they hold."

Kyle Herrig, president of Accountable.US

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Lots Of Corporations ‘Paused’ Political Donations After Jan. 6. And Then…

By Matt Shuham 

In the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, scores of companies put out statements on their plans to “reevaluate,” or outright stop, their donations to members of Congress who had voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

After a year of political giving, the numbers speak for themselves. 

Seven companies who pledged in some form to pause donations specifically to members of Congress who interrupted the peaceful transfer of power subsequently gave thousands of dollars to them or their leadership PACs, according to campaign finance data analyses by the political newsletter Popular Information, watchdog group Accountable.US and TPM: Cigna, Comcast, Eli Lilly, Exelon, Home Depot, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Walgreens.

More than a dozen others stopped donating to members but still donated to party committees that support those Republicans’ campaigns, a loophole of sorts. Dozens more said they’d be suspending all political giving — only to resume contributions within months of the Capitol attack.

In all, corporations and trade groups that released statements condemning the Jan. 6 attack collectively donated more than $2.1 million in 2021 to members of Congress who voted to overturn the election, according to campaign finance records tracked by Accountable.US. 

The American Bankers Association PAC — which according to Accountable.US was the largest single corporate or trade group donor last year to members who backed Trump on Jan. 6 — told Business Insider a week after the insurrection, “As we do after every election, we will meet with all of our stakeholders in the coming weeks to review our political activities from the last campaign cycle before making any decisions about future plans.” 

“The troubling events of the last week will certainly be a consideration in those discussions,” the PAC said. 

The group began donating to multiple election objectors in June, and in all of 2021, it gave $255,500 to 77 objectors, in sums of between $1,000 and $7,500 each, according to Accountable.US.

… 

Walgreens, which made a similar commitment in August, ultimately gave $24,000 to 11 objectors in November and December, according to Accountable.US.

The donations that do benefit would-be election thieves make their way to the very top: According to Accountable.US, the top recipients among election objectors were also the most influential: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA).”

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